Football Players: Balanced Diet is Key

BALANCED DIET

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Each person should eat a well balanced diet. A balanced diet should consist of eating sixty percent carbohydrates, thirty percent fat, and ten percent protein. The majority of one’s carbohydrates should come from fruit and vegetable sources. The majority of one’s energy supplied by fat should come from unsaturated fats, those that remain liquid at room temperature. Finally the majority of protein intake in one’s diet should come from chicken, fish, and beans as opposed to red meats.

Complex Carbohydrates = Grain products, vegetables, fruits, oatmeal, rice, and pastas

Fats = Low fat milk, low fat yogurt, low fat cheese, low fat ice cream, oils

Proteins = Skinless boneless chicken breast, fish (tuna, haddock, shrimp, roughy), beans, low fat peanut butter, ground or sliced turkey, lean ham, and top round sirloin

DO NOT SKIP MEALS

It is important to maintain food intake at constant levels throughout the day. Your weight regulation mechanism in your body is referred to as your set point. It can be compared to the thermostat in a heating and cooling system. Skipping meals to lose weight is counterproductive and actually slows your body’s metabolism down. Thus, if your goal is to lose weight then it is imperative that you eat five to six meals per day. A meal may include a turkey sandwich and a bag of carrots or a piece of fruit. You can wash all of this down with a glass of milk or water. The key here is small portions. A portion should be about the size of your fist. This will increase your metabolism thus decreasing the amount of calories that you store as fat. On the other hand if you are trying to increase your weight it is best to eat three good-sized meals every day. Supplement these meals with one to two snacks and you should have no problem gaining an extra couple of pounds. One key factor that many athletes do not understand is that your body can only absorb a certain amount of nutrients at one time. So it is imperative that you constantly fuel your body.

LARGE AMOUNTS OF PROTEIN ARE NOT ESSENTIAL

Protein is the most poorly understood and possibly the most abused nutrient in the athletic community. The recommended daily allowance for protein is calculated as follows, 1 gram per 2.2 pounds of body weight. Therefore a 220-pound male only needs 100 grams of dietary protein per day. This is equivalent to sixteen ounces of red meat. Thus protein supplements are unnecessary and can be money that is foolishly spent. It is also important to keep in mind that your body can only absorb about thirty grams of protein in one sitting. Any excess will be excreted. This reiterates the need to eat smaller meals more often throughout the day. Remember, weight gain is a combination of increasing a balanced diet, which increases total caloric intake.

ARE VITAMIN SUPPLEMENTS NECESSARY

Athletes tend to consume large amounts of food and if a sensible selection occurs there should be an adequate intake of vitamins and minerals. On the other hand, if your diet is not balanced a supplement may prove to be beneficial. However, keep in mind that the finest sources of vitamins and minerals come from foods and not pills.

HOW TO LOWER FAT SELECTION

*Buy lean cuts of meats
*Trim the excess fat
*Do not fry foods, instead bake, broil, poach, steam, or grill them
*Use fats sparingly, if you must use them stick with unsaturated fats
*Use skim or low fat milk products

Excess weight in the form of fat will affect your speed and endurance levels. Our goal is to make you bigger, not fatter. The following pages contain an analysis of foods and their caloric contents. These pages are to be used as reference guides to improve your overall eating habits.